A pensioner was raped at knife point by a naked crack-addled pervert after he ambushed her in his flat.

The victim called at Stephen Potter’s home, in Marine Terrace, New Brighton, in October when she was attacked.

He invited her up via the intercom but when she got into the flat she found a pornographic film playing on his TV and turned around to find him completely naked and wielding a nine inch blade.

Robert Jansen, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that Potter, 55, told her they were going “have some fun” before guiding her into the bedroom and subjecting her to a terrifying series of hour-long sexual assaults and rape.

At one stage he broke down and apologised to her and she tried to comfort him but he then continued the assaults, forcing her to strip naked and attacking her again.

Mr Jansen said although the knife never touched her skin his threatening manner and the things he said made her think she could be hurt at any moment and she twice had to stop herself being physically sick.

The court heard after he let her leave Potter’s victim spent days trying to find someone who could help him with his problems, before reporting him to police, something which the judge said was a “mark of her character”.

Potter was arrested and admitted the attacks, telling police it was as a result of smoking six rocks of crack cocaine that afternoon.

Potter, who has previous convictions for indecent assault and indecent exposure going back to the 1980s, admitted charges of rape, sexual assault, and false imprisonment.

Sarah Holt, defending, said Potter was still “struggling to comprehend” what he had done and felt “shame, disgust and remorse” for his actions.

She said he stood before the court “with nothing”.

Jailing Potter for seven years and adding a two-year extended license period after finding him a danger to women, Judge Brian Lewis said: “You had planned this.

"You knew what you were going to do. In advance of her coming up you had taken of your clothes and armed yourself with a knife.

“When she got into your flat she turned around and saw you were completely naked and holding the knife. It was an ordeal for her of such a magnitude she must have thought it had gone on for hours.

“All of these offences were committed at knife point. More than once she had to stop herself being physically sick. She was terrified but eventually you let her leave. You knew exactly what you had done because you admitted it to her before she left.”